An electronic touch screen provides an alternative to a standard typewriter-style electronic keyboard for the entry of data into a computer. With a touch screen system, the user enters data by touching virtual buttons displayed on the computer display. The touch screen eliminates the need for a separate keyboard, and the space required for the keyboard, and may offer a more intuitive interface to users unfamiliar with computer operation.
With a touch screen system, the type, size, and number of the virtual buttons may be readily changed by changing the computer's program without changes in the associated hardware. Thus, the touch screen system offers a user-interface that may be flexibly tailored to a particular application. The ability to divide virtual buttons among different screens and to display only those screens needed by the user's particular task can simplify data entry. The combination of text and graphical elements on the screen along with the virtual buttons can help to further guide the user through the steps of data input.
Normally, a touch screen system uses a touch screen panel which is placed directly over the viewing area of a standard computer display, for example, a CRT or a liquid crystal display ("LCD"). The touch screen panel provides a signal to a computer associated with the computer display indicating where on the surface of the display a stylus or finger is placed. This signal may be generated, for example, by acoustic systems detecting absorption of sound by a finger on the surface of the display or by systems using crossed beams of infrared light arrayed along x and y axes which are broken by the finger, or by laminated transparent electrodes which are physically compressed against each other to provide a point electrical contact that may be interpreted as an x and y coordinate.
Frequently a touch screen will be used with a computer contained within a kiosk to be used by the public. The computer may have so-called multi-media capabilities providing both a visual and audio program intended to help members of the public obtain information or directions.
Despite the advantage of touch screen systems in such applications, they present an insurmountable barrier to many people with disabilities. Those with impaired vision perceive only the featureless surface of the display screen knowing that it may contain one or more virtual buttons of arbitrary placement and functions. Those unfamiliar with the language of the legends on the buttons or those who cannot read, are also foreclosed from much of the information presented by touch screen systems. Critical audio information in multi-media presentations will not be received by deaf users. Those with limited mobility may be unable to reach or operate the touch screen surface.
It would be desirable to find a method of making touch screen systems accessible to people with disabilities in a way that preserves to the extent possible the advantageous aspects of a touch screen and multi-media system in simplifying the communication of information to the public.